Annotated Bibliography

For my research paper, I intend to investigate the relationship between the advancement of technology and the music industry, specifically as it pertains to the illegal downloading of songs.

Berners-Lee, Tim. Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web. San Francisco, Harper, 1999. 

This source is rather unique in that it is written by the creator of the world wide web. As a result, the opinions in it are very valuable. In this book, the author discusses his opinions on both various positive and negative aspects of the internet. Though this predates most of the internet controversy related to music, I can use this book to support the negative impacts of technology on society. 

Davidson, Cathy. "Project Classroom Makeover." The New Humanities Reader. Excerpt originally published in Now You See It, compiled by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, 5th ed., Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 47-71. 

This source argues for the integration of technology, specifically into the education system. Additionally, it provides some insight regarding Apple's intense desire to popularize the iPod. I will use this source to discuss the inevitability of illegal downloading of music. I will make the case that the iPod becoming popular left broke college students with no choice but to illegally download music.

Kahney, Leander. "How Apple Got Everything Right by Doing Everything Wrong." Wired, Conde Nast, 18 Mar. 2008, www.wired.com/2008/03/bz-apple/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2016. 

This source focuses on how Apple's tendency to go against the grain has contributed to their massive success. In doing so, it discusses iPods, and how they have permitted users to take iTunes songs on the go. As a result, this portability and personalization of music libraries has coincided with the illegal download of songs. I will use this to gain a better understanding of why people illegally download music, and how Apple itself is responsible.

Turkle, Sherry. "Selections from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other." The New Humanities Reader, compiled by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, 5th ed., Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 457-85. Excerpt originally published in Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, 2011. 

This source mainly focuses on the psychological affects of technology. More specifically, it discusses children, and how technology has changed the way they interact. I will use this source to help make a point as to how people how might not ordinarilly break the law are doing so as a result of technology, as this is a case of technology changing how people think. 

Wu, Tim. "Father and Son." The New Humanities Reader, compiled by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, 5th ed., Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 533-59. Excerpt originally published in The Master Switch, 2010. 

This source begins by detailing Apple's launch of the iPhone, before going into detail about some aspects of the history of Apple. It also discusses competition, such as Google and Android, and overall covers a good portion of the integration of technology into society. This will be useful to me in that it further supports the fact that technology has become commonplace. Additionally, there is an interesting part that discusses how Apple actually broke the law, which I can use to justify the breaking of laws when it comes to the illegal download of music.

Annotated Bibliography

topic area: sexuality and modern feminism

Bell, Leslie. “Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom.” The New Humanities Reader, by Kurt Spellmeyer and Richard E. Miller, 5th ed., Stamford, Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 24-46.

This essay discusses the contradiction of women being free to do many activities now, such as  pursue male-dominated professions, but are not completely free to be sexual.

Bruckner, Hannah, and Peter Bearman. “After the Promise: The STD Consequences of Adolescent Virginity Pledges.” Journal of Adolescent Health, www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/AfterThePromise.pdf. Accessed 27 Oct. 2016.

This article examines the effectiveness of virginity pledges in reducing sexually transmitted infections among young adults, and essentially concludes that they are not the best approach.

Faludi, Susan. “The Naked Citadel.” The New Humanities Reader, by Kurt Spellmeyer and Richard E. Miller, 5th ed., Stamford, Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 72-104.

This essay talks about the turmoil that happens at an all-boys military school when a female recruit is admitted. It delves into important topics regarding how the modern female is seen, and what stereotypes and presumptions she brings with her.

Fredrickson, Barbara. “Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do,” The New Humanities Reader, by Kurt Spellmeyer and Richard E. Miller, 5th ed., Stamford, Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 105-28.

This essay explains the neuroscience of love and relationships, and how it may not work as simply as we believe it does. It also discusses what consists of our “supreme emotion” and how new research dispels this.

Stepp, Laura Sessions. Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both. New York, Riverhead Books, 2007.

This book examines modern hookup culture through the personal experiences of young women, and the social constructs and effects it has had on each of them individually.

Annotated Bibliography

Topic: Social apathy

Brooks, Rodney Allen. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Print.

This book talks about how machines are becoming more influential in our lives and how they reflect who we are. I can link the changes machines have on our lives to the changes we have as social creatures.

Loffreda, Beth. "Selections from Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder." Ed. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed. N.p.: Cengage Learning, 2015. 235-57. Print.

This article talks about the murder of a gay college student and how it triggered a huge media response. I can use this article to demonstrate the need for certain conditions to be met before any of us cares about any issues.

Nelson, Maggie. "Great to Watch." Ed. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed. N.p.: Cengage Learning, 2015. 299-314. Print.

This article discusses the omnipresence of violence in our popular culture. I can use this article to discuss how people accept the status quo very easily and not be bothered by problems until it affects them.

Scott, C.G. “Student Self-Esteem and the School System: Perceptions and Implications.” Journal of Educational Research

This article discusses self-esteem ingrained in the education system. I can use this to talk about how early influences shape social apathy later on in life.

Twenge, Jean. "An Army of One: Me." Ed. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed. N.p.: Cengage Learning, 2015. 486-511. Print.

This article discusses the huge focus on the self in recent history and how  that obsession can destroy both society and the individual. I can use this article to discuss the negative impacts of social apathy.

Annotated Bibliography

Johnson, Steven. “The Myth of the Ant Queen.” The New Humanities Reader. Eds. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 192-209. Print. 

Johnson talks about emergent intelligence in complex systems. He uses ants and humans as living examples of the process, but then he builds into the more theoretical framework in mathematics and in computer science.

Davidson, Cathy. “Project Classroom Makeover.” The New Humanities Reader. Eds. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 47-71. Print. 

Davidson in her article is using the ‘iPod experiment’, whereby Duke University gave away iPods to their entire freshman class and any student whose class would require it, to explain how educators are looking at education from the wrong perspective. She uses anecdotes to show how the American education system is failing and how to fix it.

Fredrickson, Barbara. “Selections from Love 2.0.” The New Humanities Reader. Eds. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 109-127. Print. 

Love 2.0 is about the chemicals in the brain and how to rethink the human mind from a biochemical perspective. It deals with how people feel when interacting with others and how the brain experiences chemical changes and how those changes describe people’s behavior.

Heller-Roazen, Daniel. Echolalias: On the Forgetting of Language. New York: Zone, 2005. Print.

Roazen talks about how people can forget things quite easily. Humans forget the baby babble that they once knew as an infant. Also he focuses on how children can learn languages so easily and that people forget the ease of learning language as they grow up as well.

Porges, Stephen W., Jane A. Doussard-Roosevelt, and Ajit K. Maiti. "Vagal Tone and the Physiological Regulation of Emotion." Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 1994: 167. JSTOR Journals. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

This last article is a research paper on the regulation of emotions in physical terms. The paper starts off by describing what emotional behaviors people have and then it moves on to the physical features that are responsible for dictating emotion, including the neuroendocrine, autonomic nervous, and central nervous systems. The last part deals with the development in emotional behaviors and how the relationships between the systems regulate emotion.

Sample Research Proposal Evaluaiton

Brown builds his topic by finding an interesting research area, which in his case is neuroplasticity in humans. He narrows it further by limiting his paper to the changes that occur with neuroplasticity. To create his actual topic, Brown also focuses his ideas to how neuroplasticity affects the psyche. He wants to prove in his paper that brains can change over time, particularly in the absence of some form of stimuli. He tries to build a frame and case, where “Mind’s Eye” is the frame and the other two major readings, “The Eyes of the Skin” and “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It was Friday”. Then he will use his last two sources, “The Occipital Cortex in the Blind: Lessons about Plasticity and Vision” and “Adult Deafness Induces Somatosensory Conversion of Ferret Auditory Cortex” to provide actual evidence for his topic.

Annotated Bibliography

Angell, M. (2009, January 15). “Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption.” New   York Review of Books.  http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/01/15/drug-companies-doctorsa- story-of-corruption/

This article discusses the greed-driven corruption that is omnipresent in the pharmaceutical world. It talks about how doctors have begun diagnosing younger children and prescribing them powerful drugs that were not even approved by the FDA. It also exposed how much money the pharmaceutical companies paid doctors to push certain medications. It also detailed how certain clinical trials were rushed or did not go through the necessary processes for collecting data before certain drugs were brought to market. I’ll use this source to provide support for the fact that economic inequality is connected to corruption and prejudice in that the rich and powerful abuse those below them. Rich and powerful pharmaceutical companies use their money to bribe doctors and push drugs onto patients. There is a heavy stigmatism against mental illness in society, so people are quick to turn to medication to be seen as “normal.” 

Healy, D. (2004a). Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression. New York University Press.

This book by author David Healy analyzes the history and development of SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. He looks at the marketing campaigns publicizing these drugs and all the controversies around them, questioning how beneficial they actually are to patients struggling with depression. These drugs initially seemed like miracles, but upon further investigation, there a dark side. Some patients taking theses medications ended up with side effects worse than the disease, and, in some cases, drove people to suicide. I will use this text to further analyze the corruption and prejudice that emerges out of economic inequality. Depression and mental illness in society is so stigmatized that people go to extremes to rid themselves of it. Medication is seen as a quick and easy solution, so people often turn to pharmaceuticals to solve their problems. Major pharmaceutical companies know this, so they use their money and resources to play off of this and convince doctors to push their drugs onto patients. 

Loffreda, Beth. “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder.” The New Humanities Reader. By Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. 5th ed. 236-255. Print.

This essay looks at the murder of a gay college student from Laramie, Wyoming and the aftermath in the media that followed. I will use this source to analyze that there are many different prejudices in society, which leads to inequality. As a gay student, Matt faced prejudice and was ultimately murdered for his sexuality. In the media coverage of the event, it quickly became clear that certain aspects of the story were not lining up, and the media was skewing the perspective to shift the focus to what it wanted people to believe. The media has more power than the general public, as they have the most knowledge. The inequality in this case was not of economic origins, but more of social ones. The LGBTQ+ community faces prejudice regularly, and in this case, the general public of Laramie did as well, as the media used their power to hide the truth from the people.

Stiglitz, Joseph E. “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society.” The New Humanities Reader. By Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. 5th ed. 394-409. Print.

This essay analyzes the inequality of America and how it developed into what it is today. It talks about how it did not just appear out of nowhere; it was created. The 1% continues to increase the scale of the inequality, making the gap grow larger and larger. The 1% aside, the government also perpetuates some of this inequality. I will use this source to analyze the economic inequality in the America and show what this growing divide does to the people.

Watters, Ethan. “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan.” The New Humanities Reader. By Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. 5th ed. 513-529. Print.

This essay began with a discussion about pharmaceutical companies and the expenses they went through to get doctors to meet with them and agree to push their drugs to their patients. It went on to mention the high suicide rates in Japan and how in Japan, mental illness often goes without being talked about. I will use this to analyze the stigmatism mental illness holds in society and economic inequality furthers this prejudice as rich and powerful drug companies are able to continue to push for the overuse of their pharmaceuticals. 

Annotated Bibliography

Davidson, Cathy. "Project Classroom Makeover." The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed.

Stamford: Cengage, 2015. 47-71. Print.

Davidson points out how the modern education system was built in order to accommodate economic needs. In doing so, she points out its modern shortcoming and how the system needs to change. I can use this to argue for the benefits of education reform as it relates to helping society.

Johnson, Steven. "The Myth of the Ant Queen." The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed.

Stamford: Cengage, 2015. 192-209. Print.

Johnson touches upon the relationship between humans and machines in emergent software. I can apply the importance of technology that Johnson lays out to the idea of how humans are becoming less important for progress because of how the nature of learning is changing.

Twenge, Jean. "An Army of One: Me." The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed.

Stamford: Cengage, 2015. 487-505. Print.

Twenge focuses heavily on the generation of students who are baselessly over confident and unable to accept any kind of setback or criticism. I can connect this to how students are even more unprepared than they would be normally for the changing real-world environment.

Stout, Maureen, 2000. The Feel-Good Curriculum. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books; pp. 3-4

Stout recounts her own experience with prospective teachers who act entitled for good grades and misunderstand the purpose of modern education. I can use this to show how the system is self-perpetuating out of control and how the focus of education needs to change.

Heine, Steven J., Eugene Ide, Shinobu Kitayama, Hisaya Matsumoto, Darrin R. Lehman,

Cecilia Leung, and Toshitake Takata. "Divergent Consequences of Success and Failure in Japan and North America: An Investigation of Self-Improving Motivations and Malleable Selves." Research Gate. Research Gate, n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

This study explains the cultural situation which created an inadequate American educational system. I can use this to show how complacency by students perpetuated by the education system will cause them to be left behind in the technologically changing world.

Annotated Bibliography

NHR - “Selections from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each other” by Sherry Turkle.

This selection focuses on the way children have gradually learned to see electronic toys as “alive” because of the advancement of computing. It seems that a judgement free programmed companion can make us just as attached as to a pet or another human being. It also poses questions about what being alive means and whether computers will ever become conscious, including whether the afamed “singularity” will ever be reached. The ambiguous relationship between man and computer as well as man’s relationship with emotions and thinking is are what can be taken away from this.

NHR - “Project Classroom Makeover” by Cathy Davidson

Talks about the reformation of the education system and focuses on Davidson’s experience with the iPod initiative at Duke in the mid-2000s. Crowdsourcing, destandardization and authority are discussed in detail. However, what applies to my topic is the interaction the students had with technology and their enthusiasm with involving it in yet another part of their lives. They way the students could so easily take the initiative and insert the device into their education points to their comfort with technology as well as the rapid growth of technology in our lives.

NHR - “The Myth of the Ant Queen” by Steven Johnson

Johnson discusses emergent, self-organizing systems in everything from ants to computer programs. The latter is what I think pertains to my topic. Even Oliver Selfridge, an educated researcher describes his computer program through “demons” shrieking at each other, personifying the code. He also focuses on getting a computer to not just recognize characters but learn which is a clear distinction. If the computer learns then is it somewhat alive? Why does he want the computer to learn? At the time it was an experiment to see if it could even be done and this suggests that we have an innate drive to play good and try to create consciousness.

Referenced in NHR “Selections from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each other” by Sherry Turkle, David Hanson’s TED talk “Robots that ‘Show Emotion’”

In this TED talk the robotics expert David Hanson talks about his work with artificial intelligence. He has produced robots that can produce intricate and life-like facial expressions based on the emotions the human that is talking is conveying, i.e. laughter makes it smile. Hanson’s goal is to make robots that can learn to empathize with you. Although this is difficult he is well underway in creating robots that can react to what you say and learn how to interact with you over time. This is very interesting since it shows how close we may actually be to develop a free-thinking and conscious computer or robot.

Referenced in NHR “Wisdom” by Robert Thurman, the movie The Matrix

The movie The Matrix is iconic because it forced and existential question upon everyone that watched it: are we living in the Matrix? We are limited by the world around us but what if that world doesn’t even really exists. On the other hand, does living in a computer simulation mean our world is not real or can something be real without having a physical component. The movie ties in nicely with questioning the reality of our existence and what being alive really means.

Annotated Bibliography

Topic: technology and psychology: how is AI similar to the brain? Can AI feel emotion, if emotion is indeed just a bunch of chemical reactions in the brain? How close to humans are robots? Can technology experience love like humans do? (These are just a bunch of preliminary questions swirling around my head, nothing concrete yet)

(I may switch out/add one or two sources such as Steve Johnson’s “The Myth of the Ant Queen” or Oliver Sacks’ “Mind’s Eye”)

Chorost, Michael. Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.

(Cited in Alone Together) This book is a memoir of sorts, retelling a person’s experience after losing his hearing forcing him to receive implants, and his struggle to live normally afterwards. Obviously, I haven’t read through the entire book, but the book could serve as a good tool to show how blurred the lines between technology and biology are.

David Hanson: Robots That "show Emotion" Perf. David Hanson. TED, Feb. 2009. Web. <https://www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_relate_to_you>.

(Cited in Alone Together) This TED talk is about the advances at the time (early 2009) in robotics and showing emotion on robots. Hanson created a number of robots that could accurately mimic facial expressions and was working to implement artificial intelligence to make use of that hardware. This source could be used to show how robots could be nearly indistinguishable from humans in appearance alone, at least.

Fredrickson, Barbara. Selections from Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become. New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 106-28. Print.

This source talks about the biology as well as the psychology of love and some of the scientific research on the emotion, effectively explaining it in scientific and concrete terms. This source could be used to compare the brain and love as an emotion to AI and technology, drawing similarities how they consist of components and concrete processes.

Gilbert, Daniel. "Immune to Reality." New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 129-47. Print.

This source shows how sometimes people subconsciously misunderstand how much they enjoy or dislike something based on pre-existing notions. This source has a lot of statistics and comes to a number of conclusions on behavioral psychology and could prove useful in proving a point.

Turkle, Sherry. "Selections from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other." New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 458-85. Print.

This source explains how some robots can appear to be alive and how children especially can become emotionally attached to these robots. This source gives examples of how technology is becoming increasingly intelligent. It could also be used to show how thin the line between robotic “intelligence” and actual human emotions are.

Annotated Bibliography

I’m not sure if I want to connect music to technology or see how technology has become sort of ‘alive’. I’ll see which I end up being more interested in.

Lethem, Jonathan. "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism." The New Humanities Reader

 (2015): 210-231

This is about how not all plagiarism is bad. If a person is passionate about another’s work, they have every right to work off of what another person has done, as long as they give create where it is due. All musicians need to plagiarize in order to start creating new music, their thoughts and ideas come from past ones, not out of the void.

Nelson, Maggie. “Great to Watch”The New Humanities Reader 2015: (300-311)

“Great to Watch” is claiming that we as a society have become so used to violence that we are becoming desensitized to it. However, this is due to conditioning and we can grow to become something else. New technology can be a great thing but it is also dangerous. I feel I can somehow connect this to music in technology and display how music could slow violence.

Sherry, Turkle. “Selections from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other” The New Humanities Reader (2015): (458-478)

This is about computers and how they can seem to be alive, specifically Turkle discusses ELIZA, tamagotchis, furbies, Merlin, and BIT. All these programmed things displayed several emotions making them seem almost alive. The point is that eventually there could be a singularity where robots develop into fully emotional functioning beings. If we can come this far with robots, we could make music programs and robots to create new music.

Reeves, Byron, and Clifford Nass. How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. Cambridge, UK: CSLI Publications and Cambridge university press, 1996.

This talks about how people can feel a great need to enter into a relationship with a machine. Furthering the idea that one day machines and humans can be ‘partners/ lovers’ of sorts.

Winnicott, Donald Woods. Playing and reality. Psychology Press, 1971.

Winnicott discusses the whole idea of transitional objects and how babies are affected. He believes it is hard to give specific examples because his idea of our external and shared reality is so infinite. This can relate to how humans can have a need of love to come from robots and other non-living objects.

Annotated Bibliography

Dyson, George B. Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. Basic

Books, 2012. Web.

Dyson goes in depth into Oliver Selfridge’s Pandemonium, a creation that pioneered the development of artificial intelligence. Dyson describes the simple hierarchy that is used in Pandemonium to help it learn, which consists of smaller, unequipped programs speaking to the levels above it. This system allows these nearly useless components to all have a part in the hierarchy. Dyson speaks about how this advancement led to the development of complex data networks for the military, which shows how a small factor can have a large benefit on a system.

Lethem, Jonathan. “The Ecstasy of Influence; A Plagiarism.” The New Humanities Reader 5th

Edition, edited by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, Cengage Learning, 2015,

211-231.

Johnson’s essay talks about how seemingly disorganized systems have sort of element have an element that keeps them organized and, consequently, produce exceptional results. For example, Oliver Selfridge used a system of individual, unintelligent “demons” to create a self-learning system by implementing a simple system to tell the demons if they recognized a character correctly. A system such as this shows that there is potential in the collection of unintelligent individuals, but there needs to be some sort of guiding force to organize them and develop a greater whole.

Moss, Michael. “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food.” The New Humanities

Reader 5th Edition, edited by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, Cengage Learning,

2015, 259-275.

This essay focuses on how people’s desires and needs are exploited by companies which

produce large profits as a result. Elements that are exploited include a need to pack a quick meal for one’s children or a desire of more delicious flavors for one’s favorite snack. Such small needs produce millions of dollars of profits for companies, but these products are driving American obesity rates up, bringing up the debate of the cost of fulfilling human needs.

Schulz, Kathryn. “Did Antidepressants Depress Japan?” The New York Times Magazine, 22

August 2004, 39. Web.

The article specifies the differences between American and Japanese perceptions of depression. Mild depression, a well-known disease in America, did not exist in Japan previously. However, with the simple introduction of anti-depressants and the culture of depression, Japan soon realized that many personality traits people have are related to depression, and the people changed their views on personality as a result. The country was known for people’s reserved lifestyle because of the influence of Buddhism, but all of a sudden many started to reveal their feelings, and the culture changed drastically. All of this was just because drug companies wanted to spread their market to other countries.

Watters, Ethan. “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan.” The New Humanities Reader 5th

Edition, edited by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, Cengage Learning, 2015,

513-531.

The late 1900s was an era of drug development, of which selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) made a breakthrough in depression treatment. As companies such as GlaxoSmithKline tried to sell these drugs to other countries and open up new markets, they could not do so because other countries’ definitions of depression were different. What we call mild depression in America is sometimes referred to as a melancholic personality in Japan, a personality that is sometimes admired. Additionally, these SSRIs had different emotional effects on Japanese people in clinical studies due to the difference in culture. The limitation of culture proves to be a significant factor in marketing new products. What is interesting is how a simple marketing decision was able to drastically change Japanese culture.

Sample Research Proposal Evaluaiton

I think the research proposal defines a good topic with a narrow enough field to study that he won`t spend the entire paper narrowing down the topic, but with enough complexity and breath to give himself some room to work with the topic and create an interesting paper out of it. The objective of the paper is to explore how the brain adapts to changes in information input, such as losing one of the senses it relies on to gather information about the outside world. The proposal also says it might discuss on the changes in the networks of the brain to account for those sensory loses affects the 'pysche' of the individual effected. Some of the sources are essays from the New Humanities Reader, although the author found other sources to back up what was discussed in those essays from scientific journals and expand on ideas and thoughts found in there that will help to support the thesis of the essay and provide more facts, figures and data to support and develop his argument.

Research Paper`

My research paper will take a philosophical standpoint and overall discuss the importance of self identity and establishing some sort of a sense of self in order to be able to differentiate oneself and refrain from falling into the dull pattern of everyday life that most humans follow.

Solomon, Andrew. "Son." The New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 368-392. Print.

This essay discusses how one develops their self identity from childhood. Where a parent may see a certain future for their child, the child actually experiences and encounters life in a way that forms his or her own self-identity and these experiences and encounters are ultimately completely unpredictable. This source will be used to exemplify the fact that one can never predict or know who one will become and it is ultimately up to that individual and no one else to form his or her own sense of self. 

Thurman, Robert. "Wisdom." The New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 440-456. Print.

This source relates Buddhism to the sense of self and ultimately regards it as irrelevant and counterproductive as we only seek because we want to control it. In contrast, he argues the ideal of selflessness and giving up this hunt for "self" in return for enlightenment. However, some of his points do line up with certain point I am going to make as he brings up the stress and narcissism present on our society that becomes a burden and contaminates many of us. Whereas Thurman sees a lack of self as the solution, my essay will argue that being comfortable and developing an essence of self such that one is capable of differentiating oneself is key to a fulfilling existence. 

Twenge, Jean. "An Army of One: Me." The New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 486-511. Print.

TWenge's essay focuses on our modern society... the "me me me" generation. This again brings up the narcissism point and exemplifies what occurs if one is not capable of identifying an individual sense of self and ends up falling into the pattern of life that is led by everyone else in society. In other words, there is the life that is part of the "herd" or the life that everyone leads without much substance but instead a rather superficial life. Then there is those who break free from the herd to differentiate themselves and form their own "self" and this is essential to stray away from narcissism, and many burdens of life. 

Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1962. Print.

Heidegger is a philosopher that talks about the importance of differentiating oneself and how to do it. This is through caring and openness. Heideggers philosophy lines up exactly with my thesis and will be used as support.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/identity.htm

This source primarily brings up Maslow's hierarchy and relates it to importance of self identity as it is the basic and immedaite need of all humans. This source may be used to counter Thurman's argument and expand on my own. 

Research Paper`

My research paper will take a philosophical standpoint and overall discuss the importance of self identity and establishing some sort of a sense of self in order to be able to differentiate oneself and refrain from falling into the dull pattern of everyday life that most humans follow.

Solomon, Andrew. "Son." The New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 368-392. Print.

This essay discusses how one develops their self identity from childhood. Where a parent may see a certain future for their child, the child actually experiences and encounters life in a way that forms his or her own self-identity and these experiences and encounters are ultimately completely unpredictable. This source will be used to exemplify the fact that one can never predict or know who one will become and it is ultimately up to that individual and no one else to form his or her own sense of self. 

Thurman, Robert. "Wisdom." The New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 440-456. Print.

This source relates Buddhism to the sense of self and ultimately regards it as irrelevant and counterproductive as we only seek because we want to control it. In contrast, he argues the ideal of selflessness and giving up this hunt for "self" in return for enlightenment. However, some of his points do line up with certain point I am going to make as he brings up the stress and narcissism present on our society that becomes a burden and contaminates many of us. Whereas Thurman sees a lack of self as the solution, my essay will argue that being comfortable and developing an essence of self such that one is capable of differentiating oneself is key to a fulfilling existence. 

Twenge, Jean. "An Army of One: Me." The New Humanities Reader. 5e ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 486-511. Print.

TWenge's essay focuses on our modern society... the "me me me" generation. This again brings up the narcissism point and exemplifies what occurs if one is not capable of identifying an individual sense of self and ends up falling into the pattern of life that is led by everyone else in society. In other words, there is the life that is part of the "herd" or the life that everyone leads without much substance but instead a rather superficial life. Then there is those who break free from the herd to differentiate themselves and form their own "self" and this is essential to stray away from narcissism, and many burdens of life. 

Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1962. Print.

Heidegger is a philosopher that talks about the importance of differentiating oneself and how to do it. This is through caring and openness. Heideggers philosophy lines up exactly with my thesis and will be used as support.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/identity.htm

This source primarily brings up Maslow's hierarchy and relates it to importance of self identity as it is the basic and immedaite need of all humans. This source may be used to counter Thurman's argument and expand on my own.